Royal Oak Township, MI Animal Ordinances: Cat Rules (2026)

Article III of Chapter 4 of the Code of Ordinances of the Charter Township of Royal Oak, Michigan, covers cats in four sections, § 4-81 through § 4-84. Section 4-81 is the at-large rule: no person can willfully or knowingly permit or enable a cat to run at large within the township. The knowledge standard matters, because the target is the person who lets or enables the roaming, not the cat.

Section 4-82 is the nuisance rule. No person can willfully or knowingly possess, harbor or maintain any cats so as to create a public nuisance by noise or other threat to the public health and welfare, or to disturb the reasonable use and enjoyment of property of surrounding persons. A neighbor's complaint about cats therefore turns on disturbance of the reasonable use and enjoyment of property, not just on the number of animals. Section 4-83 adds a separate cap of three cats, six months of age or over, per household, covered on the pet limits page.

Section 4-84 is the enforcement section. Any animal control officer or other person designated by the Township is authorized to impound any cat found running at large within the township. An impounded cat can be redeemed by its owner after payment of an impounding fee and costs. If the cat is not redeemed within five days, it is disposed of in the manner directed by the township animal control officer. Impoundment fees are as currently established or as hereafter adopted by resolution of the Township Board, so the dollar figure sits in a Board resolution and not in the code text.

Article III prints no cat license requirement, no tag rule and no provision on feral colonies. The license rules in Chapter 4 are in the dog article, where § 4-56 licenses dogs four months of age or over.